Europe is rewriting how 27 governments buy weapons

The EU is rewriting how it buys weapons. The 3 July 2026 Commission proposal files five "European Defence Projects of Common Interest" (EDPCIs) — joint, multi-country programs under Regulation (EU) 2025/2643 — that replace the old pattern in which each of the bloc's 27 defense ministries bought its own kit from its own national champion.

The €300 billion headline (~$325 billion at roughly $1.08 per euro, a working mid-July 2026 reference) is a packaging label, not an appropriation. It sums multidecade line items: drones and counter-drones (€5bn, ~$5.4bn, by 2033), seabed defense (€72bn, ~$78bn, by 2045), space (€24bn, ~$26bn, by 2034), federated air and missile defense (€80bn, ~$86bn, by 2040), and an "Eastern Flank Watch" (€100bn, ~$108bn, by 2036). The actual near-term purse is the €1.5bn (~$1.6bn) European Defence Industry Programme approved in December 2025, of which only €325m (~$350m) is seeded through 2028.

That is the gap to read through. Maniatis's claim to naftemporiki.gr — that Greece "claimed and achieved" the €300bn for all member states — papers over the Council adoption vote that has not yet happened. In fact, the structural move is the news: from 27 separate shopping carts to a single procurement framework, with the Council vote as the load-bearing gate. If member states pass it, the line items become contracts, factories, jobs. If they do not, the €300bn stays on the page.